Chasing the Unicorn: Bourbon & American Whiskey

Luxco's Remus brand marked its Repeal Reserve series' 10th anniversary with two releases at once: Series X, a three-mash-bill anniversary bourbon, and the brand's first-ever rye whiskey, a 95%-rye release at 111 proof. Both are priced the same, both are on shelves now, and no lottery sits in front of either one. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

The Cut asks three questions today. First: should a bottle only count if you show up in person, using Bardstown's festival-exclusive debuts as the test case. Second: given a choice between Jeptha Creed's nine-grain solera bourbon and Brown-Forman's Kentucky Boy tribute blend, which is the better bet — new grain and method, or a proven back catalog. Third: what Four Roses' four-letter recipe codes actually promise, and where that promise runs out. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Garrison Brothers took eight barrels from an identical French Limousin finishing program. Seven went into the standard Laguna Madre blend. The eighth was bottled alone at full cask strength for roughly four times as much. Same wood, same years, same distillery — one path costs a quarter of the other. John argues the premium buys scarcity, not a different whiskey, though the proof gap is real. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Redemption's new Bottled-in-Bond single barrel was distilled at MGP's Ross & Squibb Distillery in Indiana and bottled in Kentucky — with the barrel number, mash bill and distilling season printed right on the label. It's a clean look at what a Non-Distiller Producer is, and why full disclosure, not the word "sourced," is what separates the brands that last from the ones that get called out. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Today's Cut asks three questions cold: can you trust a court receiver's 30-day timeline for the Uncle Nearest sale when the case underneath it keeps producing defaults and a new IRS claim; what "Bottled in Bond" actually legally guarantees versus what people assume it means, using Bib & Tucker's new release; and whether Bulleit '87 is a genuine two-whiskey blend or marketing math dressed up as innovation. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Old Forester replaced the camp-out line for Birthday Bourbon with a random mail-in drawing, but winners still have to make a trip to Louisville and show ID before the bottle changes hands. Franklin weighs whether that's real fairness or just a relocated barrier, points to Starlight's Mizunara lottery as the same argument in different clothes, and lays out what to actually watch — gift-shop drops of leftover stock, secondary market pricing on last year's bottle, and winners posting about their pickup trips. He puts his own guess on the unclaimed-bottle count on the record and asks listeners to do the same. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

This week's calls all circled the same test, whether it was a lottery, a sourced-whiskey launch, an eight-year rye, or a pair of finishing programs from one distillery. Franklin revisits Monday's Silverthorn Reserve call, Thursday's Garryana-versus-Jura call, and Friday's bourbon certification call — one held up, one is still too early to judge, and one, honestly, didn't. Plus a trip to a seed-to-spirit tasting room in Fort Collins and a look at what's in the American Whiskey Industry Brief that never made it to air. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Two new bottles, two different bets. Basil Hayden's Cognac Cask Reserve leans on 20-to-25-year-old French oak that held Cognac; Remus's Repeal Reserve Series X blends three mash bills built and aged in-house for nearly two decades. One buys someone else's barrel. The other buys someone else's judgment. John argues the blend wins — and explains why finishing and blending aren't the same lever at all. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Bardstown Bourbon Co. put out two whiskeys at the same price with opposite finishing bets — four months in scarce Garryana oak versus 32 months in Scottish casks. Shortbarrel added sherry to its 50-plus-cask cigar blend for the first time. And Brown-Forman's CEO exit lands the same quarter Jack Daniel's slipped while Woodford and Old Forester grew. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Old Forester's Birthday Bourbon winners can't send a friend to collect — they need matching ID, in person, in Louisville. Sagamore Spirit's new Bottled-in-Bond rye leans on a federal age guarantee instead of a label's word for it. And Maker's Mark's oldest-ever bourbon raises the question of whether older automatically means better. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Old Forester replaced Birthday Bourbon's overnight line with a sweepstakes — a computer draws winners, but every one of them must still show up in person with ID to collect the bottle. We ask whether that's fairer or just the same test moved somewhere else. We also dig into Maker's Mark's decision to print the exact age blend on its newest release, and ask whether an easy-to-order, French-oak-finished bourbon can be worth chasing without a lottery attached. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Today's Cut runs three arguments cold. First: does it matter who signs the distribution check, now that Morales Beverage Group has moved on RNDC's bankrupt Indiana business? Second: does a sourced-whiskey brand's credibility survive if the person behind it never touched a still — the case of a former Sagamore Spirit CEO's new label. Third: does a free lottery actually level the field, or do the same hunters win anyway. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

It's Sunday planning on The Cut Weekend, and Franklin spends the whole hour on one question: when a company's own founding family publicly calls leadership's direction stark and undeniable, does that pressure actually change how the business runs, or does the board just let the letter fade? He works both sides — the case that nothing moves without a vote or a resignation, and the case that a family's public break from leadership is impossible to absorb quietly — then names the specific things worth watching in the weeks ahead. He closes with his own call, on the record, and points listeners to the American Whiskey Industry Brief for the full story on Maker's Mark's oldest bourbon release yet. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

This week's news ran from a bankruptcy-auction plant sale to a record Willett barrel, a blind-tasting upset, and four different ways companies decide who gets the bottle. Franklin revisits the week's calls — what held, what's still open, and the one that didn't hold up — and lands on the real question underneath all of it: is a story about the whiskey, or about who gets to buy it. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Today's Cut argues three questions cold: whether a bottled, ready-to-pour Manhattan is beneath a serious rye distillery or a fix for the one thing that ruins most people's cocktail — stale vermouth. Then whether a distillery pouring allocated bottles for free on a hotel-ballroom tasting tour helps drinkers or just proves scarcity is a dial someone turns. Then whether a bourbon finished in leftover honey barrels is a real experiment worth selling or an undefined word buying a producer the benefit of the doubt. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Today's Cut argues three questions cold: whether committing to a year of unseen bottle-club releases is the honest version of the chase or a whiskey timeshare, whether Jack Daniel's taking American Single Malt national validates the category or flattens it under one house style, and whether a fourth straight "World's Most Admired Whiskey" award means anything to someone standing in a shop. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Today's Cut argues three questions cold: whether a bottle's price says anything about what's inside it after Ampersand Aureus beat Eagle Rare 17 and Stagg blind, whether a record Willett auction sale means the secondary correction is over or just concentrated at the very top, and whether a distillery-only release rewards showing up or just tolls the people who can't get there. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Today's Cut argues three questions cold: who really pays when a tariff hits a liquor shelf, whether a four-whiskey blend from Redwood Empire is genuine innovation or a way to move leftover barrels, and whether a Brown-Forman family letter means anything without the votes to back it. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

A Kentucky distillery that opened in 2024 was bankrupt by 2026, and Sazerac bought it out of a court-ordered auction for $20 million. Today's Cut argues whether that's good for drinkers or bad, then asks whether Texas-grown barrel oak actually changes flavor, and closes on a medal-winning rye worth grabbing over one worth chasing. The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

On this Sunday look-ahead edition of The Cut Weekend, Franklin previews a light but meaningful week ahead. Maker's Mark Cellar Aged arrives nationwide September 1st with a record eighteen percent fourteen-year-old whiskey in the blend, cask strength. Then he spends real time on The Malted Mummy — Filmland Spirits' new American single malt, beer-barrel finished and Kentucky-matured, debuting at BrewzleFest on August 29th ahead of a nineteen-state rollout at $74.99.

Franklin closes the week with a look back at bourbon's cheap seats outperforming — Redemption's new bottled-in-bond, a 99-point score for a forty-dollar Maker's Mark 46, and Bardstown Bourbon Company pricing two very different finishes the same. He sits with Very Olde St. Nick Immaculata, a thirteen-barrel blend drawn from three hundred casks. And he points to two bottles worth pouring this weekend without chasing anything: Woodinville's Single Barrel Rye and a Weller Special Reserve restock in Southwest Ohio.

Koopers Whiskey finished an 8-year MGP bourbon in barrels built by Standard Cooperage, Texas's first cooperage, bottling 360 bottles at 114.8 proof. Presale opens Saturday, August 22, at 11 a.m. for $70 a bottle, online and at Koopers' Ledbetter tasting room, shipping around September 1. It's a real supply-chain first, not just another scarcity drop.

A Kentucky charity raffle is offering five allocated-bourbon prize packages — including a six-bottle Pappy Van Winkle set, a Buffalo Trace Double Eagle Very Rare, a Weller vertical, and a Blanton's letter set — for a $100 ticket. Only 130 of 1,500 tickets have sold. The drawing is August 27. Proceeds benefit the Lexington Sporting Club Foundation. This week's Cut also covers Maker's Mark's oldest cask-strength cellar release yet and a same-price Bardstown Bourbon comparison.

Bardstown Bourbon Company confirmed identical $139.99 pricing on two very different fall releases landing August 21: Lochs of Jura Barrel Finish, a 104-proof blend finished 32 months in Scotch casks from Islay's Isle of Jura that scored 99 points at a major competition, and 2026 Discovery, a hotter 112.8-proof bourbon finished just four months in Oregon Garryana oak. Same price, same week, two different bets.

Maker's Mark 46 just earned a 99-out-of-100 Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, adding to an earlier World's Best Finished Bourbon win. The bottle is 94 proof, about $40, and sitting on shelves nationwide — no lottery, no allocation. Two competitions, two panels, same bottle landing near the top both times. Price and quality rarely line up this cleanly.

Redemption's first bottled-in-bond bourbon, Single Barrel Bonded, clears the federal four-year minimum by two full years while staying at the mandatory 100 proof — and it's priced at $49.99. Distilled at MGP's Ross & Squibb Distillery in Indiana, bottled by Redemption in Frankfort, Kentucky. It joins the brand's ongoing Higher Marques Collection, with national rollout starting in September.

Sunday's look-ahead: the Hanger Foundation's charity raffle draws live September 16, $100 a ticket for a shot at a Pappy Van Winkle vertical, a Buffalo Trace Antique Collection set, and a Weller Rainbow set among 71 bottles — with no cap on tickets per buyer. Franklin lays out the real math behind that unlimited-ticket detail before you decide how many to buy. Also on the calendar: Hard Truth's Dark Roast Rye preview pours (August 21 in Nashville, Indiana; August 28 in Indianapolis) and Garrison Brothers' Cowboy Bourbon walk-up and online release windows.

It's Saturday, so Franklin slows down and looks back at what the week in bourbon actually added up to. The throughline was brands proving what's theirs — from a new Lexington distillery for Never Say Die to Garrison Brothers publishing its entire Cowboy Bourbon plan. The centerpiece is Chattanooga Whiskey's rare Moldovan ice wine cask finish, plus a look at what's actually grabbable this weekend in Wyoming and beyond.

Terry Bradshaw's whiskey brand launched a four-drink cocktail menu today across five bars in Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, and Texas, with every drink named for a real moment in his playing career — the "Immaculate Refreshment," "The Blond Bomber." Priced $12–$22. The same week, Beyoncé bought LVMH's stake in SirDavis, reversing the usual celebrity-brand deal. Two athlete/celebrity whiskeys, opposite directions, same 48 hours.

Fifteen months after Middle West Spirits took over Old Elk Distillery, the brand answered the only question anyone was asking. On August 12, three 10-year whiskeys — a straight bourbon, a straight wheat whiskey, and a wheated bourbon — landed nationwide, all at $69.99, all 105 proof. Same decade in the barrel, three different grain recipes, no lottery required.

Garrison Brothers confirmed everything about its 2026 Cowboy Bourbon: $249.99, 141 proof, minimum eight years in Texas heat-cycled barrels, 16,000 bottles total. Access comes in three waves — 1,000 bottles walk-up only at the Hye distillery on September 12, 279 bottles online September 18, then nationwide retail October 1. Distillery first, website second, shelf third.

Hard Truth Distilling in Nashville, Indiana just locked in Dark Roast Rye, a Bottled-in-Bond whiskey that blends two separate rye mash bills — one built on chocolate malt, one on caramel malt — into one federally verified 25-barrel batch. Most bonded whiskey sticks to a single recipe; the law never required that. It lands September 26 at $59.99, with two Indiana preview pours in the weeks before.

Never Say Die has always distilled in Kentucky, shipped the whiskey to Derbyshire, England to finish aging, then brought it home to bottle. That changes this fall. The brand confirmed it's opening a two-story brand home at 249 W. Short St. in downtown Lexington, complete with its own Distilled Spirits Plant license — the federal permission to actually distill, not just blend and bottle. The site will also be the only U.S. location selling its UK-only bottles, Barrel Strength Bourbon and Double Ocean Bourbon.

Sunday's the day to look down the road, and this week has three things worth your attention: Alabama's quarterly allocated-spirits lottery is open through August 23rd, the Garrison Brothers Hye Rye pre-sale closes Monday, and Frey Ranch's new Tractor Tailgate Club just opened — capped at 500 members. Franklin digs into why Frey Ranch's farm-to-bottle model, growing all its own corn, rye, wheat, and barley in Fallon, Nevada, makes this club worth knowing about even if you're just watching from the sidelines. Small moves, real windows.

This week's current ran under every headline: what happens to the pipeline that gets bourbon from barrel to glass when parts of it stumble. Franklin covers RNDC's bankruptcy and wind-down, MGP's steep drop in contract-distilling, and Oaklore's bet on lower prices — plus a run of distilleries earning trust the hard way, from Old Elk to Garrison Brothers to Stetson's three-year bourbon debut. The feature stop is Starlight Distillery in Borden, Indiana, marking 25 years with a 10-year single barrel bottled unfiltered at 120.4 proof, on-site only, while it lasts.

Stetson, the hat brand founded in 1865, just released its first bourbon — and it didn't take the quick licensing route. Master blender Dan Callaway spent three years sourcing and tasting barrels from two named Kentucky distilleries, Green River and Bardstown Bourbon Company, before finalizing a 100-proof, high-rye Kentucky straight bourbon. It launched August 4 at $70. Today's Cut pours it next to Green River's own $25 release to test what three years of blending actually added.

Garrison Brothers, Texas's oldest legal whiskey distillery, opened its first-ever pre-sale on Hye Rye Bourbon — a bottle that normally vanishes in seconds. Pay $99.99 plus tax now, four-bottle limit, and pick up in person at the Hye, Texas distillery in October 2028. The window closes August 10. It trades a browser-refresh race for a guaranteed allocation, two years out.

Old Grand-Dad's second annual Bottled-in-Bond batch shipped at the same $39.99 price as last year — a 7-year, 100-proof bourbon that clears its federal age floor by three years. The same week, Stetson launched its first bourbon at $70 and Oaklore Distilling cut prices across its lineup on purpose. Three companies, three different price calls, one 72-hour window.

Stranahan's released Colorado's first-ever Bottled-in-Bond whiskey on Colorado Day — an 11-year single malt from one 2015 season, $159.99, now expanding into California, Texas, and Florida. Bottled-in-Bond is a 1897 federal law that doesn't check your mash bill, only your paperwork — one distillery, one season, four years bonded aging, 100 proof. A Colorado single malt house choosing it shows the credential is spreading past bourbon.

Old Elk, under new owner Middle West Spirits, released a straight bourbon, a wheated bourbon, and a straight wheat whiskey the same day — all 10 years old, all $69.99. The only variable that changed between bottles is the grain recipe, handing drinkers the cleanest mash-bill comparison on shelves this year without hunting down two different distilleries.

It's the Sunday look-ahead: one real deadline, a couple of things to keep half an eye on, and one bottle worth planning a trip around. Garrison Brothers' first-ever Hye Rye Bourbon pre-sale closes August 10th — four bottles per customer, under a hundred dollars, but a two-year wait before it ships. Franklin also flags a coming Canadian whisky tariff and a Heaven Hill distributor shift, then closes on Bardstown Bourbon Company's Victoria Pineapple release from their new Finishing Series.

It's the Saturday recap on The Cut Weekend. Franklin walks through a week of restart, risk, value, and access across four different producers, then lingers on Garrison Brothers' new pre-sale — a Hye Rye Bourbon locked at $99.99 that won't be ready to drink for two years. He closes with two still-reachable weekend options: Virginia's Blanton's lottery and the Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond decanter at Heaven Hill's Bourbon Heritage Center.

Old Elk put three 10-year bourbons on the shelf at once — a Straight Bourbon, a Wheated Bourbon, and a Straight Wheat Whiskey — all $69.99, all released July 29. Same distillery, same decade in the barrel, only the grain changes. It's the cleanest mash-bill comparison the category's offered in a while, no lottery required.

A Kentucky nonprofit, Commonwealth Causes, closes ticket sales tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on a raffle whose grand prize is six bottles of Pappy Van Winkle. Tickets are $100 each, capped at 1,500. No allocation, no waitlist — just a ticket and a same-night drawing, with proceeds funding Kentucky charities.

Old Elk just shipped its first releases under new ownership: a straight bourbon, a straight wheat whiskey, and a wheated bourbon, all aged ten years, all priced at $69.99. That's $20 to $80 below what comparable 10-year bourbons usually run. Also today: a distributor's bankruptcy reshuffles shelves in 26 states, and a Texas rye pre-sale won't deliver until 2028.

Bardstown Bourbon Company launched its new Finishing Series this week, and the first bottle is a real swing: a blend of 10- and 11-year bourbon plus 11-year rye, finished 27 months in pineapple rum casks. Bottled at 106 proof, $139.99, under 350 nine-liter cases, Kentucky-exclusive. Disclosed base-whiskey ages make the long finish more credible than most.

Beam Suntory confirmed its Booker Noe plant is back to full seven-day production after an eight-month partial idle, and its Clermont site is restarting slower, at 60 percent capacity. Same mash bills, same yeast — just more bourbon, starting now. It's a bet that the years-long inventory glut has cleared enough to justify making more, with full output not expected until early 2027.

Franklin walks through the week ahead: a free Ohio lottery for Weller Antique 107 closing tonight, the pre-allocation window for Wild Turkey's Master's Keep Triumph closing Thursday, and the real story of the week — Old Forester Birthday Bourbon arriving at retail early, well before its usual September 2 release date. He traces the bottle's roots as a family birthday tribute and explains why this early window is a rare shot at buying it honestly, at retail.

Saturday's recap ties the week together around one idea: the honest bottle keeps winning. Franklin walks through a Heaven Hill supply squeeze, New Riff's first 8-year Bottled-in-Bond, an August price increase on Elijah Craig and Larceny, and the feature story — a blind tasting at The Sawyer in Louisville where a twenty-seven dollar Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond beat Weller in front of forty voters who walked in rooting for it. He closes with three bottles still pourable this weekend.

A Louisville bar ran a blind tasting of four wheated bourbons — Maker's Mark, Weller Special Reserve, Larceny Barrel Proof, and Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond. Forty drinkers submitted ranked ballots. The $27 Old Fitzgerald BiB won by more than double the next closest bottle, beating Weller, which trades for four times the price on secondary.